The present invention is related generally to systems of music, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for employing mode-enhanced Hindustani Music.
Music is a combination of rhythm and melody. Melody, or raag (raaga), is generally understood as a sequence of notes, each of which is a single pitch or a single uniform sound associated with a set of frequencies, out of which one of the frequencies influences how the note sounds. Pitch is usually calculated by a measure of periodicity of waveforms based on xcfx80=3.1416.
The Western musical system contemplates 12 notes in an octave, of which 7 are xe2x80x9cnaturalxe2x80x9d notes; the remaining 5 notes are either xe2x80x9csharpxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cflatxe2x80x9d notes and lie between the 7 natural notes. These notes are arranged in a sequence of pitches from left to right, whereby if a note is positioned to the right of another note, the one on the right has a higher pitch.
Scales are combinations of notes. Though it is possible to construct a large number of scales by combining the notes in different ways, in practice there are a few scales that occur more frequently than the others. The starting note of a scale is called a xe2x80x9croot note.xe2x80x9d
A key concept in producing musical melody is the avoidance of dissonance, which is also known as overtone interferences between successive notes. Overtone interference hampers the identification of an individual note. To avoid overtone interference, a number of interval systems have been in practice, for example, Pythagorean, mean tone, equal temperament, and just intonation, which are used in the Western music systems. It should be noted that the Western musical system is typically an xe2x80x9cequal temperamentxe2x80x9d system; successive notes are equidistant, i.e., they are separated by equal frequency ratios.
Unlike Western musical systems, the East Indian musical systems are closer to xe2x80x9cjust intonationxe2x80x9d systemsxe2x80x94successive notes are not equidistant. In the East Indian musical system, there are seven notes called swaras. xe2x80x9cRaagaxe2x80x9d is considered similar to scale, and xe2x80x9cshrutixe2x80x9d is similar to xe2x80x9croot notexe2x80x9d. Shruti intervals, which are 22 in number, are thought of as the foundation of swaras. The seven notes are: Shadj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat, and Nishad. These are usually represented in an abbreviated form: Sa, Re (re), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni.
Mode is a way to describe the varying positions of these scales. Mode is called xe2x80x9cthataxe2x80x9d in Hindi. The concept of thata is old; it was described several thousand years ago as xe2x80x9cjati.xe2x80x9d Thatas or modes are variant scales developed from a major scale simply by starting from a different note. Some of these thatas were termed Shuddha, meaning xe2x80x9cpurexe2x80x9d jatis, which were formed by taking a natural scale and producing other scales by simply shifting the tones. This method changed with fixing the interval for the 5th tone, the Pancham.
The important contribution by the eminent Hindustani musicologist, Pandit Bhatkande (1860-1936), who first attempted to systematize the Hindustani music, resulted in casting all raagas into only 10 thatas, which limits the Hindustani music severely. Some attempts were made to rectify this situation and identify other possible thatas from a theoretical point of view, but these attempts were not successful. Accordingly, the Hindustani musical system can be improved by using a systematic approach to identifying additional thatas or modes.
Hindustani music is found to have an additional 22 thatas (modes) that can be scientifically and accurately computed. Together with the 10 thatas already identified, these newly identified and compiled thatas make a total of 32 thatas. In a further aspect, a raaga or melody is constructed by a combination of ascending and descending notes by selecting a thata, and computing a combination including at least 5 ascending or descending notes for the thata. An additional feature of the present invention is that new raagas can be formed with the 10 thatas that are currently in use as well as from the newly identified 22 thatas. Accordingly, in one aspect, this method systemically produces new raagas.
Further, new musical instruments can be constructed by applying the newly identified thatas. Students of music may be taught new tunes based on the 32 thatas. Also discovered is a method of programming a musical instrument such as the sitar to produce tunes in accordance with the method described herein. Further, the method may be programmed to a general-purpose digital computer to produce new forms of melodious music.